While out on my walk this morning I was passed by a parade of cars bearing people that appeared to be dressed for worship services. I wondered as they drove by if perhaps they thought I was an unbeliever since I was out walking instead of going to church like they were.

I flashed back to my own feelings of smugness at observing others intent on “worldly” activities while I was en route to worship. It suddenly hit me just how presumptuous I had been.

Just because a person’s times, places or styles of worship don’t match mine does not give me any right to assume that they are any less pious and faithful than I.

Feeling myself wrongly judged by those folks driving by, if only in my own imagination, awoke me to the insidious complacency that had been creeping into my attitudes.

Snug or smug? Only a single letter separates the two words, but the attitudes are miles apart. Those of us snug in the assurance of God’s promises must never become smugly self-righteous.

It is judgment and a critical spirit that changes one’s faith to smugness.

It’s grace, received and given, that prevents that unhappy distortion.